The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-11
Land Taxation and State Ownership.

Land Taxation and state ownership.
A few sentences from different pages
of Progress and Poverty" will show
how the author is thus possessed and
absorbed. Private ownership of land
he sees as the great scourge and plague,
rent crushes and curses labor; material
progress, inventive genius, wealth, pro-
tective tariffs and dense population are
attendant evils grinding to dust the
poor working man.
T,ook over the world to-day, compar-
ing different countries, and you will see
that it is not the abundance Of capital or
the productivenees of labor that makes
wages high or low, but the extent to
which the monopolizers of land can, IN
rent, lay tribute upon the earnings OF Ia
bor. ~ Wherever you find land rela-
lively low YOU will not find wages rela-
lively high +? Wherever land is high you
will not find wages low ***
"Private ownership OF land is the Meth
or milestone. Material progress is the
upper milestone. Between them, with an
increasing pressure, the working classes
are being ground. 4 The tendency
of what we call material progress is in no
wise to improve the condition OF the low.
est class in the essentials of healthy,
happy human life. 4 Wages are GER
tainly lowest where capital is relatively
most abundant. Poverty deepens
as wealth increases, and wages are forced
down while productive power grows"
These are fearful counts in his in
dictment, but facts prove them untrue.
only harm can come from such rash
and reckless assertions, if they are al
lowed to go uncontradicted.
His sole remedy and panacea is: ITO
abolish all taxation save on land values"
on the theory that no man has any right
to own land. ITO satisfy the law of JUS
tice," he says, would be lat one stroke
to declare all land public property" but
he would not suddenly shock our pre-
sent arrangement to that extent, and
saws: "What 1, therefore, propose, as
the simple yet sovereign remedy, which
will raise wages, increase the earnings
of capital, extirpate pauperism, abolish
poverty, give remunerative employ to
whoever wishes it, afford free scope
to human powers, lessen crime, elevate
morals, taste and intelligence, purify
government and carry civilization to
yet nobler heights, is-to appropriate
rent as toTdtion."
Land taxes would increase, as taxes
on the personal property of the rich
were abolished. How would this oper-
ate in practice? Suppose the present
tax on farm of a hundred acres to be
$50 year and that this scheme should
raise it to 800, would that help the
owner of the farm, or enable him to
pay higher wages to his workmen?
Suppose a cottage hired by work.
ing man now pays a tax on house and
lot of $40, and the lot should pay $50
under this new plan. The owner would
add the extra $40 to his rent and the
working man, his tenant, would have
to pay it. How would this added price
of rent raise wages or give remunera-
tive employ or do any of the fine things
promised? This land tax would be as
grinding rack-rent as ever Irish peas
ants or Scotch crofters or poor Hindoo
ryots starved under or revolted against.
Nor would it abolish rent, the evils
of which are so constantly emphasized.
Could man afford to build houses on
land, which he did not own, and not
charge rent to tenants who occupied
them? Plainly he could not, and there
fore landlords and tenants would still
exist.
Mr.. George gives warning of a grow
ing tendency to hold land in larger
quantities in this country. No doubt
purchases of great tracts are more fire.
quent than formerly, yet our census
shows that the average size of farms de-
creases instead of increasing. That
average was 1919 acres in 1850, 153 acres
in 1870, and 1874 acres in 1880.
The real evils that come from land
monopoly are not to be ignored. With
our broad domain and our freedom from
the English usages and laws of primo
geniture and entail they are but little
felt, yet their possible coming has been
partly guarded against, and may well
be guarded anew and with more
strength. Our homestead and pre-emp-
ton laws have greatly helped many in
dustrious men to buy government lands
at low price, and have secured to
worthy settlers the first right to enter
upon the full possession of farms they
have opened. They have done much
good in keeping the land divided into
farms of moderate size. Purchases of
great tracts of government land by syn
dictates of capitalists should be checked,
and such purchases by foreign non-resi-
dents even prohibited. We want the
farmer on his own soil, not great land
lord and tenant system like that which
is so grave an injury to Ireland and
Great Britain. But to correct the abuses
of good thing is far different matter
from abolishing the good which is abus-
ed and putting bad thing in its place.
We want the fixed and settled feeling,
the home and family unity and security,
the sense of full citizenship and re-